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PLATERO I
MARIO CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO
ACD2 2725
ATMA Classique
MARIO CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO
1895 -1968
AND
PLATERO I
1
3
6
7
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12
13
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18
Platero ( I )
Friendship ( VIII )
April Idyll ( XVI )
Return ( III )
The Consumptive Girl ( XIII )
Carnival ( XXVII )
Lullaby Singer ( XVIII )
The Moon ( IX )
Sunday ( XXV )
Wayside Flower ( XXIV )
November Idyll ( XX )
Convalescence ( XXII )
Swallows ( XXIII )
Spring ( IV )
Death ( XXI )
Melancholy ( VII )
Nostalgia ( XIV )
Platero in Heaven ( XXVIII )
TEXT BY
2:55
1:58
3:39
4:03
3:04
4:30
5:25
1:55
3:17
3:04
3:53
4:07
4:45
2:20
4:08
3:10
3:59
3:24
MARIO CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO
1895 -1968
AND
PLATERO I
1
3
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
Platero ( I )
Friendship ( VIII )
April Idyll ( XVI )
Return ( III )
The Consumptive Girl ( XIII )
Carnival ( XXVII )
Lullaby Singer ( XVIII )
The Moon ( IX )
Sunday ( XXV )
Wayside Flower ( XXIV )
November Idyll ( XX )
Convalescence ( XXII )
Swallows ( XXIII )
Spring ( IV )
Death ( XXI )
Melancholy ( VII )
Nostalgia ( XIV )
Platero in Heaven ( XXVIII )
TEXT BY
2:55
1:58
3:39
4:03
3:04
4:30
5:25
1:55
3:17
3:04
3:53
4:07
4:45
2:20
4:08
3:10
3:59
3:24
With the start of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Jimnez and Zenobia
emigrated to Puerto Rico, where Jimnez later became a professor of
Spanish language. They also spent time in Cuba, Florida, and Washington
D.C. Zenobia died in December, 1956, a few days after Jimnez was
awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. It was a shattering loss and he died
two years later. Both Jimnez and Zenobia are buried in Moguer.
Jimnezs exile to Puerto Rico in 1936 is mirrored in Mario CastelnuovoTedescos exile to America three years later. Castelnuovo-Tedesco was born
in 1895 into a Jewish Florentine family whose Tuscan history reaches back
to the sixteenth century. His reputation was established with the opera
La Mandragola (The Mandrake) which won the prestigious Concorso Lirico
Nazionale and received its premiere at Venices hallowed Teatro La Fenice.
The 1930s also saw performances of Castelnuovo-Tedescos works in
America, notably his concertos for violin, I Profeti (The Prophets) and cello.
Both were premiered by Arturo Toscanini and the New York Philharmonic with
Jascha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky as the respective soloists.
Castelnuovo-Tedescos European career came to a precipitous halt in
1938 with the introduction of Il Manifesto della razza, Mussolinis version of
Germanys race laws, and the banning of his works. With the influence of
Heifetz and Toscanini, Castelnuovo-Tedesco and his family emigrated to
the United States, leaving from Trieste on July 13, 1939, six weeks before
Germanys invasion of Poland and the start of World War II. They settled in
Beverly Hills, where Castelnuovo-Tedesco lived until his death in 1968.
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco was hugely prolific and his uncanny and
uncommon ability to create music that perfectly reflects and reinforces
narrative and atmosphere, greatly endeared him to Hollywoods music
departments. During the course of just 15 years he supplied scores for over
130 movies, although many of them draw on library (or stock) music
PLATERO Y YO
With the start of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Jimnez and Zenobia
emigrated to Puerto Rico, where Jimnez later became a professor of
Spanish language. They also spent time in Cuba, Florida, and Washington
D.C. Zenobia died in December, 1956, a few days after Jimnez was
awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. It was a shattering loss and he died
two years later. Both Jimnez and Zenobia are buried in Moguer.
Jimnezs exile to Puerto Rico in 1936 is mirrored in Mario CastelnuovoTedescos exile to America three years later. Castelnuovo-Tedesco was born
in 1895 into a Jewish Florentine family whose Tuscan history reaches back
to the sixteenth century. His reputation was established with the opera
La Mandragola (The Mandrake) which won the prestigious Concorso Lirico
Nazionale and received its premiere at Venices hallowed Teatro La Fenice.
The 1930s also saw performances of Castelnuovo-Tedescos works in
America, notably his concertos for violin, I Profeti (The Prophets) and cello.
Both were premiered by Arturo Toscanini and the New York Philharmonic with
Jascha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky as the respective soloists.
Castelnuovo-Tedescos European career came to a precipitous halt in
1938 with the introduction of Il Manifesto della razza, Mussolinis version of
Germanys race laws, and the banning of his works. With the influence of
Heifetz and Toscanini, Castelnuovo-Tedesco and his family emigrated to
the United States, leaving from Trieste on July 13, 1939, six weeks before
Germanys invasion of Poland and the start of World War II. They settled in
Beverly Hills, where Castelnuovo-Tedesco lived until his death in 1968.
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco was hugely prolific and his uncanny and
uncommon ability to create music that perfectly reflects and reinforces
narrative and atmosphere, greatly endeared him to Hollywoods music
departments. During the course of just 15 years he supplied scores for over
130 movies, although many of them draw on library (or stock) music
PLATERO Y YO
which studios failed to credit. His legacy as a teacher at the Los Angeles
Conservatory of Music is incalculable and his students represent a whos
who of post-war American music. They include Andr Previn, Jerry Goldsmith,
Henry Mancini, John Williams and Nelson Riddle, all, like CastelnuovoTedesco himself, terrifically adept and creative orchestrators.
Although Castelnuovo-Tedesco wrote a vast amount of chamber, vocal
and orchestral music, he is perhaps most closely associated with his works
for guitar, many of which were composed for, and dedicated to, Andrs
Segovia. In June 1960 he began work on guitar accompaniments to 28 of
the poems from Jimnezs Platero Y Yo. They are best described as musical
commentaries, reinforcing and complementing Jimnezs prose,
matching the changing moods, and providing a sometimes onomatopoeic soundscape as effective as his scores for the cinema, although
solely dependent on language rather than visual prompts.
Castelnuovo-Tedesco had always composed at a precipitous speed
Hollywood certainly demanded this abilityand each of the 28 settings
(divided into four groups of seven) occupied him for no longer than a day
or two. This, and the fact that the piano was his primary instrument,
accounts for his occasional mis-steps, where utterly idiomatic guitar writing
is suddenly interrupted by bars that are unplayable. These instances are
usually easily remedied by the appropriate re-spacing of chords, but occasionally more elaborate solutions are needed.
While the standard version of the complete Platero settings follows the
composers manuscript (now part of the composers archive in the Library
of Congress), there is nothing to suggest that this rather haphazard order
was anything other than a convenient way of collecting the pieces in the
sequence of their composition. The order certainly makes no narrative
sense. For example Plateros death three-quarters of the way through the
which studios failed to credit. His legacy as a teacher at the Los Angeles
Conservatory of Music is incalculable and his students represent a whos
who of post-war American music. They include Andr Previn, Jerry Goldsmith,
Henry Mancini, John Williams and Nelson Riddle, all, like CastelnuovoTedesco himself, terrifically adept and creative orchestrators.
Although Castelnuovo-Tedesco wrote a vast amount of chamber, vocal
and orchestral music, he is perhaps most closely associated with his works
for guitar, many of which were composed for, and dedicated to, Andrs
Segovia. In June 1960 he began work on guitar accompaniments to 28 of
the poems from Jimnezs Platero Y Yo. They are best described as musical
commentaries, reinforcing and complementing Jimnezs prose,
matching the changing moods, and providing a sometimes onomatopoeic soundscape as effective as his scores for the cinema, although
solely dependent on language rather than visual prompts.
Castelnuovo-Tedesco had always composed at a precipitous speed
Hollywood certainly demanded this abilityand each of the 28 settings
(divided into four groups of seven) occupied him for no longer than a day
or two. This, and the fact that the piano was his primary instrument,
accounts for his occasional mis-steps, where utterly idiomatic guitar writing
is suddenly interrupted by bars that are unplayable. These instances are
usually easily remedied by the appropriate re-spacing of chords, but occasionally more elaborate solutions are needed.
While the standard version of the complete Platero settings follows the
composers manuscript (now part of the composers archive in the Library
of Congress), there is nothing to suggest that this rather haphazard order
was anything other than a convenient way of collecting the pieces in the
sequence of their composition. The order certainly makes no narrative
sense. For example Plateros death three-quarters of the way through the
COLIN FOX
NARRATOR
SIMON WYNBERG
GUITAR
COLIN FOX
NARRATOR
SIMON WYNBERG
GUITAR
PLATERO Y YO
epuis longtemps, les rflexions mditatives de Juan Ramn Jimnez
sur les prgrinations dun paysan andalou et de son loyal petit ne
Platero habitent limaginaire espagnol. Publis en 1914, les 138 pomes
en prose de Platero y yo (Platero et moi) rendent hommage la rgion et
aux habitants de Moguer, la ville natale de Jimnez. Si le recueil est prcis
sur les questions demplacement et de sensibilit, sa candeur, sa simplicit
et luniversalit de ses thmes humains nont pas de frontires temporelles,
culturelles ou gographiques.
N en 1881 dune famille aise, Jimnez manifesta des aptitudes
prcoces pour la posie. Envisageant au dpart une carrire juridique, il
sinscrivit officiellement la facult de droit de lUniversit de Sville, mais
son engagement littraire se cimenta lorsque lminent pote nicaraguayen et fondateur du mouvement du modernismo, Rubn Daro, lut les
uvres de Jimnez, lencouragea visiter Madrid et laida publier son
uvre de jeunesse, Almas de violeta ( mes de violette .)
La mort de son pre, survenue en 1900, plongea Juan Ramn dans une
dpression qui lamena jusqu un sanatorium de Bordeaux, o son rtablissement fut marqu par une idylle avec lpouse de son mdecin.
De retour Madrid, Jimnez rencontra lcrivaine et potesse Zenobia
Camprubi Aymar, quil pousa New York en 1916, lanne de la publication du chef-duvre de Jimnez, Diario de un poeta reciencasado
(Journal dun pote nouveau mari). Depuis lors, Zenobia fut toujours un
lment indispensable de la vie crative de Jimnez.
PLATERO ET MOI
11
PLATERO Y YO
epuis longtemps, les rflexions mditatives de Juan Ramn Jimnez
sur les prgrinations dun paysan andalou et de son loyal petit ne
Platero habitent limaginaire espagnol. Publis en 1914, les 138 pomes
en prose de Platero y yo (Platero et moi) rendent hommage la rgion et
aux habitants de Moguer, la ville natale de Jimnez. Si le recueil est prcis
sur les questions demplacement et de sensibilit, sa candeur, sa simplicit
et luniversalit de ses thmes humains nont pas de frontires temporelles,
culturelles ou gographiques.
N en 1881 dune famille aise, Jimnez manifesta des aptitudes
prcoces pour la posie. Envisageant au dpart une carrire juridique, il
sinscrivit officiellement la facult de droit de lUniversit de Sville, mais
son engagement littraire se cimenta lorsque lminent pote nicaraguayen et fondateur du mouvement du modernismo, Rubn Daro, lut les
uvres de Jimnez, lencouragea visiter Madrid et laida publier son
uvre de jeunesse, Almas de violeta ( mes de violette .)
La mort de son pre, survenue en 1900, plongea Juan Ramn dans une
dpression qui lamena jusqu un sanatorium de Bordeaux, o son rtablissement fut marqu par une idylle avec lpouse de son mdecin.
De retour Madrid, Jimnez rencontra lcrivaine et potesse Zenobia
Camprubi Aymar, quil pousa New York en 1916, lanne de la publication du chef-duvre de Jimnez, Diario de un poeta reciencasado
(Journal dun pote nouveau mari). Depuis lors, Zenobia fut toujours un
lment indispensable de la vie crative de Jimnez.
PLATERO ET MOI
11
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco fut un compositeur trs prolifique, et son aptitude tonnante et peu commune composer de la musique qui refltait
et renforait parfaitement la narration et latmosphre en fit un favori des
services musicaux hollywoodiens. En 15 ans peine, il produisit la trame
musicale de plus de 130 films; toutefois, comme les studios puisaient ses
uvres dans des stocks de musique franche (libre de droits), son nom est
souvent absent du gnrique. Son apport titre de professeur au Conservatoire de musique de Los Angeles est incalculable; la liste de ses lves
runit le gratin de la musique amricaine de laprs-guerre : en effet, Andr
Previn, Jerry Goldsmith, Henry Mancini, John Williams et Nelson Riddle sont
tous, comme Castelnuovo-Tedesco lui-mme, des orchestrateurs exceptionnellement dous et cratifs.
Si Castelnuovo-Tedesco a compos beaucoup de musique de chambre, vocale et orchestrale, on lassocie peut-tre surtout ses uvres pour
guitare, dont beaucoup ont t crites pour Andrs Segovia et ddies
cet minent guitariste. En juin 1960, le compositeur commena travailler laccompagnement pour guitare de 28 des pomes du recueil
Platero y yo de Jimnez. On ne saurait mieux dcrire ces pices quen parlant de commentaires musicaux qui renforcent et compltent la prose de
Jimnez en collant de prs aux changements dambiance et en brossant
un paysage sonore, parfois onomatopique, avec autant defficacit que
dans ses trames sonores pour le cinma, bien quil dpende ici exclusivement du langage et non dindications visuelles.
Castelnuovo-Tedesco a toujours compos une cadence prcipite,
une qualit certes essentielle Hollywood, et la composition de chacun
des 28 mouvements (rpartis en quatre groupes de sept) ne la occup
quun jour ou deux. Ce rythme, ainsi que le fait que son instrument principal tait le piano, explique ses faux pas occasionnels, o une criture tout
12
13
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco fut un compositeur trs prolifique, et son aptitude tonnante et peu commune composer de la musique qui refltait
et renforait parfaitement la narration et latmosphre en fit un favori des
services musicaux hollywoodiens. En 15 ans peine, il produisit la trame
musicale de plus de 130 films; toutefois, comme les studios puisaient ses
uvres dans des stocks de musique franche (libre de droits), son nom est
souvent absent du gnrique. Son apport titre de professeur au Conservatoire de musique de Los Angeles est incalculable; la liste de ses lves
runit le gratin de la musique amricaine de laprs-guerre : en effet, Andr
Previn, Jerry Goldsmith, Henry Mancini, John Williams et Nelson Riddle sont
tous, comme Castelnuovo-Tedesco lui-mme, des orchestrateurs exceptionnellement dous et cratifs.
Si Castelnuovo-Tedesco a compos beaucoup de musique de chambre, vocale et orchestrale, on lassocie peut-tre surtout ses uvres pour
guitare, dont beaucoup ont t crites pour Andrs Segovia et ddies
cet minent guitariste. En juin 1960, le compositeur commena travailler laccompagnement pour guitare de 28 des pomes du recueil
Platero y yo de Jimnez. On ne saurait mieux dcrire ces pices quen parlant de commentaires musicaux qui renforcent et compltent la prose de
Jimnez en collant de prs aux changements dambiance et en brossant
un paysage sonore, parfois onomatopique, avec autant defficacit que
dans ses trames sonores pour le cinma, bien quil dpende ici exclusivement du langage et non dindications visuelles.
Castelnuovo-Tedesco a toujours compos une cadence prcipite,
une qualit certes essentielle Hollywood, et la composition de chacun
des 28 mouvements (rpartis en quatre groupes de sept) ne la occup
quun jour ou deux. Ce rythme, ainsi que le fait que son instrument principal tait le piano, explique ses faux pas occasionnels, o une criture tout
12
13
14
15
14
15
COLIN FOX
SIMON WYNBERG
NARRATEUR
GUITARE
16
17
COLIN FOX
SIMON WYNBERG
NARRATEUR
GUITARE
16
17
AND
PLATERO I
MARIO CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO
ACD2 2725
ATMA Classique